Gay teen beat up at school; police say its not a hate crime

Rito Osorio, a 16-year-old at Silver Creek High School in Sellersburg, Ind., was beaten up by a classmate last week in a school bathroom as the attacker yelled anti-gay slurs at home. But Sellersburg police refuse to call the attack a hate crime.

The attacker, also 16, was arrested and charged with battery.

Osorio told WHAS Channel 11 that he had never had any confrontations with the boy who attacked him, and when approached him during lunch, tapped him on the shoulder and said “Hey man, we’ve got to talk,” he didn’t think anything of it. Osario followed the other boy into the bathroom where the other boy began punching him and shouting slurs at him as other students watched.

Osario’s nose was broken and he suffered several cuts and bruises. He said the attacker hit him so hard at one point that Osario’s lip ring was jammed into the roof of his mouth, and he will need surgery to have it removed.

But the Sellersburg police chief said it was just a schoolyard fight, not a hate crime, and that the case is closed. But that didn’t satisfy Rito’s mother, Andrea Osario, who said she is afraid her son will be attacked by other students if he returns to school.

Although the WHAS report does not identify Rito Osario as gay, Pam’s House Blend blog said he is openly gay, and that the teen who attacked him said he was angry over rumors that Rito thought he was gay, also.